After Facebook Deal, Moves App Changes Privacy Policy

Moves is the latest product to join the Facebook family of mobile apps that includes Instagram, WhatsApp, Paper, Facebook Messenger and others.

Reed Albergotti for The Wall Street Journal

Moves, the fitness-tracking app recently acquired by Facebook, has changed its privacy policy to allow broader sharing of user data, including with Facebook.

As recently as Friday, Moves’s privacy policy said the company did not “disclose an individual user’s data to third parties,” without a user’s consent, unless compelled by law enforcement. The policy said it would stay in place even if Moves were acquired.

On Monday, the policy permitted a wider range of data sharing. “We may share information, including personally identifying information, with our Affiliates (companies that are part of our corporate groups of companies, including but not limited to Facebook) to help provide, understand, and improve our Services,” the policy says.

The policy change highlights a tricky subject when Facebook acquires companies. Facebook taps the information its users post to target ads to them. But some of the companies it acquires have made promises not to employ user data for ads, or to share data at all.

In February, Facebook agreed to acquire mobile-messaging service WhatsApp for $19 billion. A Facebook spokesman said WhatsApp wouldn’t share information with Facebook, but said that policy could change in the future. The deal hasn’t closed.

The Moves app uses sensors in mobile phones to track people’s movements and determine whether they’re walking, running, biking or driving using algorithms. Once installed, Moves can track users even when they don’t open the app.

The data gathered by Moves could be valuable to Facebook. After the Moves acquisition, a Facebook spokeswoman said the two companies would not commingle data. Monday, the spokeswoman reiterated that position. But she said the companies plan to share the data.

That troubles Jeffrey Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy. “It’s still a loss of privacy, but they’re covering it up with semantics,” he said. “This raises very disturbing privacy concerns.”

Mr. Chester said he planned to mention the privacy changes in a Tuesday meeting with the Federal Trade Commission.